Hi Fleetwing;

Thanks a lot for that; I'll check tomorrow if that looks like the answer.
Cheers.

Hi Sky;
Thanks for the suggestions. I've checked the carraige lock, and it wasn't on (although I now know how to use it properly - one plus), then tried the margin release key. Pressing and holding this did allow the carraige to move, but not freely; rather, it was with the grinding sound I mentioned in the original post. I tried setting the margins and releasing them again, but no change. The space bar won't move (as you suggest, I think it's stuck in the down position);  when I tried the keys sometimes the type bars struck the platen, and sometimes they didn't - mostly not.

On closer inspection of the casing (as I couldn't get the outer case to lock properly), I saw that the front right corner of the metal base (to the bottom right of the right shift key)  has slightly 'popped out' of the upper metal case, and wondered if this could have impaired any of the mechanisms inside.

Anyhow, thanks for the help so far, and any more suggestions are very welcome.

Cheers.

Hi Lucas;
Thanks for that pointer; here's what I did.

I sat the typewriter upside down on a soft board, and removed the base (lifting it from the back, then sliding it sideways when almost vertical to avoid the space bar strips); then tightened the small screws attaching the flat metal elongated-teardrop-shape flanges to the main, chunky, metal frame - 2 of them were quite loose.
Then I replaced the base, turned it over, and the carraige did move, but the rack jammed on the right side of the body (just to the right of where 'SUISSE' is stamped on the carraige mechanism).
I took the base off again, turned the machine over carefully, and the carraige rack, instead of jamming, now scraped over the body.
Upside down again, and while checking noticed that the part of the main metal frame which ends in an angled flange with slotted holes was bent over by about 3/16", on the corner where the rack was jamming (this is the 90-degree flange which a screw connects to the 2 3/4" teardrop-shaped flat flange mentioned above, which in turn has another threaded hole, into which the main base screws fit). Because of the bent flange, the body was closer to the carraige than it should have been, and so was jamming/scraping (I theorised).

I took the flat flange off, did my best to straighten out the slotted flange, replaced the flat flange, then the base.
The carraige now doesn't jam or scrape, and the type and space bars all work. Lots of fiddling and careful positioning with bent copper wire and long-nose pliers, but it paid off. Whoo-hoo, so far.
However, the carraige now seems to run a bit too freely, and doesn't always stop when I try to position it using the carraige movement button. Also, when I push the carraige over using the line space lever, it doesn't stay put, and often just returns immediately to the left-hand side.
Any suggestions on how to remedy this?

The front right corner of the base is still 'popped out' of the main body, as I was trying to go one step at a time to see which repair had what effect. I'm now wondering whether to try bending the inner lip of the base back in so it will (theoretically) sit properly, or stop now in case it affects the repair I've just done. However, if I leave it, the case still won't lock. Any thoughts?

Also, when I first removed the base, a 2" long elastic band fell out, along with a couple of very dead flies, flower petals, and crazy amounts of dust, fluff and assorted speckly stuff. Don't know if this was from a repair, or just dropped over and into the keys by mistake. On the messy stuff, would you recommend using the compressed air canisters sold mainly for cleaning computer keyboards? And if not, any alternatives?

This machine is a lot messier than another Hermes 3000 I have (serial no. 3297466), but this has what I think is the Techno Pica typeface (as opposed to the 'classic' typeface on the other), which the sci-fi fan in me really likes, so it would be nice to get this one working, and looking, as well as the other.

Sorry for the long-winded update, but any thoughts on the results above, and on what to do next, would be much appreciated.
Cheers.

Hi;

Just to apologise for managing to mis-spell 'carriage' continually throughout this thread; at least I consistently got it wrong; now noticed and it won't happen again. Honest.